


Kin

by Medie



Series: Titan [2]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Titan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-13
Updated: 2011-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-14 18:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trip might be playing two hundred years catch up, but he's not the only one out of place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stexgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Stexgirl).



Titan's mess was quiet. Deep into the Delta shift, most crewmembers had long since eaten and moved onto personal endeavours. It was a peaceful place to work outside of her office.

Soleta avoided her office as a matter of habit. Located as it was close to her preferred laboratories, she found it difficult to maintain the concentration necessary to complete evaluations and other reports. Likewise, her staff found her propensity for unannounced visits to be problematic. Deanna had explained it as 'hovering' and Soleta had always found her assessments sound.

Therefore, a relocation to the mess hall seemed a logical conclusion. She accomplished her duties, her staff seemed pleased, and should her presence be required and communications failed, she was easily located.

And then there were the times when communications failure had nothing to do with it.

"I don't know what to do first."

Soleta laid down her stylus. She had been aware of Trip's presence from the moment he had entered the mess. Not wishing to intrude, she had remained silent and not acknowledged him. However, now given permission, she turned her head to look at him. "Commander?"

"Trip," he reminded. "Mind if I sit?"

She shook her head. "Of course not." When he had done so, she moved her PADD and stylus to one side and looked at him. "You expressed uncertainty?" It was not unsurprising that he should, with only a few weeks of life in this century behind him, there was much of life he simply could not understand. His apparent easy acceptance of his new found life had, indeed, confounded her. She did not think, in his shoes, she would be quite so accepting of it as he.

That he had confessed to the contrary brought a peculiar sense of something she might have termed relief. If, of course, she were to give it a name at all. As she had no wish to assign any sort of value to such a useless, transitory emotion, she remained silent on the matter.

"Yeah," he said, waving over a waiter. "I did." Leaning forward, he rested his forearms on the table and looked at her. "The technical stuff is easy," he said, apparently answering her question. "I get that."

She nodded. "It is other things which are not so."

"Always was, machines I get. Pick them apart long enough, you'll figure the ins and outs of them. Might make a hell of a mess along the way, but that's all a part of the fun. The rest of this isn't even close to being that easy, Soleta. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing."

He looked utterly morose at such a statement. She found that it was an expression that did not suit him at all. Despite a human progenitor, she did not particularly understand their emotions well, but Soleta had learned something of dealing with them from her shipmates and family.

Sitting before Trip, she contemplated how they might address this situation and then chose the most logical one. Empathy. She leaned forward to catch his eye. "Fortunate," she said, "that you are not alone in such endeavours."

He huffed a breath, narrowing his eyes. "You're kidding, right? You grew up in this century. You know how everything works."

"I am a Vulcan, Trip," she pointed out. "I know my way and, indeed, with a background such as mine, I know a way that is narrower than most." She did not think to explain the life of a highborn Vulcan woman. It was not a condition singular to Humans, but often comprehension of the Vulcan way did not come easy. It would not be fair to expect an instant understanding from someone who knew even less of the Vulcan people. "Such a narrow focus does not lend itself well to comprehension of other species." She might have smiled, were she someone else. "Such news, I suspect, is not surprising to you."

He grinned. "No, but you admitting it is."

"On occasion," she allowed, "I am not the most Vulcan of Vulcans."

He snorted. "Could've fooled me."

"I often do," she said, honest. "I fool many." Sitting there, before him, she laced her fingers together and tried to think of an appropriate way to explain. "My father is a difficult man." It was not a sufficient beginning, so she gave a soft shake of her head. "I misspeak. He is no more difficult than any father, Vulcan or Human, might be when we are behind closed doors."

A glimmer of something that might have been understanding entered Trip's eyes. "I know," he said, nodding. "I saw it with Jon."

"Yes," she nodded. "I believe that would be an apt comparison. My father is a subject of much controversy on both my homeworlds." She resisted the urge to splay her hands flat against the table, recognizing it as a manifestation of the discontent thinking of Spock evoked. "Combined with the notoriety his career supplied him, it has effectively stripped us of any privacy."

"Which has to be hell for you," he said, quietly.

"It is uncomfortable," she acknowledged. "I have adjusted."

"By hiding it?"

"Yes," Soleta said, nodding. "My siblings and I have received a most unique inheritance from him. He had hoped, I believe, that by the time we were grown, we would be free of the scrutiny beneath which he lived."

Trip snorted a little. "Yeah, right, and if wishes were horses..."

She very nearly smiled, shocking herself. "Precisely. I am a Vulcan, but not wholly so." There she hesitated. By her very words, she deceived him as she had said. Her mother was not wholly Vulcan either. There remained a legacy of violence in their very veins and Soleta cringed to think of it. She knew it was an open secret. The reports had been classified, the officers involved in the missions forbidden to speak of it, but no secret remained buried forever. There were officials within the Federation and Starfleet who knew of her Romulan heritage and the means by which she'd achieved it. The chance existed that Trip would uncover it, but she could not bring herself to speak of it. Not yet. "My actions bear a greater scrutiny at times. If I misstep or misspeak, I run the risk of shaming not only my father, but my grandmother as well." There could be no crime greater than to shame Amanda and her legacy. She could not bear to think of her own mistakes being blamed on her grandmother's blood.

"You know, it's too bad you never met Jon," Trip said. "I think you two would've had a hell of a lot in common. He worried a lot about disappointing his dad." He leaned forward. "tell you the same thing I told him. I don't think your grandmother would've given a rat's ass about what anyone on Vulcan or Earth thought about her influence on you and you shouldn't either."

Soleta raised an eyebrow. "And his reaction to that?"

Trip grinned. "He didn't listen, but you being a Vulcan and all, you just might."

"I will attempt to," she said. "But you see my point, do you not?"

"Yeah," he said, his grin fading, "I see it."

She hesitated then, carefully, laid a hand on his arm. It was only a brief touch, but for a moment she had a sense of his thoughts, disjointed and riotous in a very human sort of way. "You will adjust, Trip," she said. "You need only give yourself time to do so."

He looked down at her hand and then up again. "I haven't been around that long, really. Guess I'm still working on patience."

"I know beings who claim an eternal lifespan who could make similar claim," Soleta replied. "You are doing far better than he."

"Do you have a story for everything?" he asked, grinning once more. "Because that could get a little annoying."

"Unfortunately, it often seems as though I do." Soleta let herself shrug. "It is a somewhat inevitable consequence of being Vulcan."

He laughed. "I thought it was an inevitable consequence of having served on the Enterprise."

"Also that," she said. "I learned much during my years aboard her." She watched the expression that passed over his face, a longing, and realized how brief his time aboard the NX-01 truly had been. He carried the memories of another man, could not view them as anything other than his, and had so very few of his own. She did not know what those days aboard the Enterprise had been like, but she could imagine.

She fell silent, allowing him the moment of contemplation he seemed to need, and waited.

"You think it'll ever feel different?" he asked, finally, looking at her again. "Like I'm not on some really bizarre vacation?"

"I believe so," she said. She did not remind him that it would take time. She had done so already, To push the point would be patronizing. She reached for her PADD and stylus. "Come," she said as she stood.

"Where?"

"The captain's quarters," she said. "Every week at this time, the senior staff meets to play poker. You are familiar with the game?"

"I am," he nodded, getting up.

"Good," she said. "Then you will play in my stead." With an arched brow, she turned away. "It is Will's assertion that I have an unfair advantage."

"One hell of a poker face?" he asked, falling into step with her.

"Quite," Soleta agreed. "Poker is a very popular game on Vulcan. We find it an excellent gauge of our emotional control and, as such, Will finds my skills frustrating."

"He's known you how long?"

She looked at him, letting a hint of amusement creep into her gaze. "Long enough that he claims I have tripled my family's fortune by my winnings. Quite impossible, but I do not believe the veracity of his claim has any meaning for him. Sour grapes is the expression?"

Trip laughed.

It was a sound that Soleta found exceedingly pleasing and, as such, would endeavour to hear again.


End file.
